2019 Corolla DAB Traffic Allerts

[Sidrat]

Does anyone with a new Corolla get Traffic Alerts (TA) when using DAB?  Since getting mine I very rarely get any, if I'm using FM no problem, but in DAB I think in the time I have had it (seven weeks) I have had two!  My wife has a 2018 Aygo and on hers not a problem, any of the FM TAs cut in on DAB and colleagues at work are the same, FM TAs cut-in on DAB.

I raised a query with Toyota through their web sit and got a reply yesterday -

Toyota Customer Relations ref: CASE11*********

Dear Mr *******

Thank you for your email regarding your Toyota Corolla.

I am sorry to hear you have not received Traffic Announcements while on DAB within your area. The reception of TA on DAB has been differing for some of our customer base and we have raised the issue of DAB broadcasting traffic announcements on DAB via Toyota Motor Europe with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders who are 'lobbying' the Digital Broadcasting Authority.

Regrettably I am not able to offer a short term solution other than advise to continue to use FM in your area and apologise for any frustration.

We hope this does not detract from your overall enjoyment of the vehicle.

Kind regards

Craig Allen
Multimedia Support
Toyota (GB) PLC
Distributor of vehicles, parts and accessories for the UK

I had also queried another glitch I had found, if using the satnav and USB to play music from a 'stick' when I got an FM TA, it swapped to the FM screen and on the screen Cancel and Continue appears, if I pressed Cancel expecting it to go back to the satnav screen and continue playing from the USB, it didn't, it carried on with the TA and FM screen, really annoying.

They need to get the bugs ironed out of the firmware on the infotainment system.

[Heidfirst]

There are no equivalents to RDS-TA announcements or TMC on DAB in the UK. Neither Touch or Touch 2 have RDS-TAs cut in on DAB & apparently from you the MM17 version doesn't either (so that's basically for 7 years +), the Aygo does because it comes from a different oem (Pioneer) & I am fairly certain because that is one of PSA's areas of responsibility for the Aygo/108/C1 rather than Toyota.

If you have "with Go" (as you apparently do) you can get Tomtom traffic by internet by linking via your phone which I find better than the broadcast TAs. Don't know if Touch 2 on it's own can get that.

[AndrueC]

Touch 2 appears to be able to get traffic information over the internet via bluetooth, but it's not fast. I've just spent some time in the car going through all the settings and with the Map/Traffic set to 'Via internet' it eventually (after ten minutes) worked out that leaving Brackley (where I live) and heading toward Towcester was currently best done via a diversion to avoid the A43(*). I have also seen notifications with the default 'via TMC' option which use the Traffic Management Channel. I don't know which is best.

To be accurate I don't know for sure if the map did use internet or dropped back to TMC, but it was getting the information from somewhere - possibly the far side of the Moon based on the time it took 🙂

Just to note: At no point have I changed anything on my phone or installed a Toyota app. I just paired the phone when I got the car and left it at that.

(*)Attempting to drive past Silverstone is a bad idea when there's a Grand Prix on 🙂

[AndrueC]

Update: From reading up on it this is phone dependant. It's likely relying on the phone supporting the 'LAN' or 'PAN' bluetooth profiles. My Samsung S7 Edge does but some phones might not, or might require that the user approve that option on the phone.

[Sidrat]

1 hour ago, AndrueC said:

Touch 2 appears to be able to get traffic information over the internet via Bluetooth, but it's not fast. I've just spent some time in the car going through all the settings and with the Map/Traffic set to 'Via internet' it eventually (after ten minutes) worked out that leaving Brackley (where I live) and heading toward Towcester was currently best done via a diversion to avoid the A43(*). I have also seen notifications with the default 'via TMC' option which use the Traffic Management Channel. I don't know which is best.

To be accurate I don't know for sure if the map did use internet or dropped back to TMC, but it was getting the information from somewhere - possibly the far side of the Moon based on the time it took 🙂

Just to note: At no point have I changed anything on my phone or installed a Toyota app. I just paired the phone when I got the car and left it at that.

(*)Attempting to drive past Silverstone is a bad idea when there's a Grand Prix on 🙂

Andrue, I am talking about the spoken ones announced by the likes of 'Sally Traffic' on Radio 2, not the information for the satnav!

 

15 hours ago, Heidfirst said:

There are no equivalents to RDS-TA announcements or TMC on DAB in the UK. Neither Touch or Touch 2 have RDS-TAs cut in on DAB & apparently from you the MM17 version doesn't either (so that's basically for 7 years +), the Aygo does because it comes from a different oem (Pioneer) & I am fairly certain because that is one of PSA's areas of responsibility for the Aygo/108/C1 rather than Toyota.

If you have "with Go" (as you apparently do) you can get Tomtom traffic by internet by linking via your phone which I find better than the broadcast TAs. Don't know if Touch 2 on it's own can get that.

Scott, that is not strictly true as whilst in DAB mode I have received a TA on a couple of occasions but not many!  

Has anyone had the situation I mentioned with the Cancel button not cancelling the TA? 

[Heidfirst]

5 hours ago, Sidrat said:

Andrue, I am talking about the spoken ones announced by the likes of 'Sally Traffic' on Radio 2, not the information for the satnav!

afaik that's RDS-TA/TP

Scott, that is not strictly true as whilst in DAB mode I have received a TA on a couple of occasions but not many!  

Maybe MM17 has changed this then (although going by Toyota's response maybe not...) but it's true of the previous generations. I understood though that DAB doesn't support interruptions to a national station from a local station?

 

[Sidrat]

A couple of weeks ago I did a two hour journey, nothing much on the radio so I plugged in my USB music stick to listen to that.  Whilst using the Navigation system a TA on FM cut in, as it was not for the area I was in I pressed the on-screen Cancel button and nothing happened, the TA carried on, I had to press the Audio button, Continue then Source, select USB then press the Map button to get back to where I was.  Most annoying and not very safe having to make so many selections!  On my three Yaris I had you only had to press the Mode button on the steering wheel to cancel a TA and go back to what the system was doing before, this is also the same for my wife's 2018 Aygo (I know it's a different system).  You would think they would make systems with similar functionality the same.

Anyway bottom line is the on-screen Cancel button does nothing in this situation, I reported it to Toyota UK but they claim there is no problem and if it persists to go to the dealer.  I managed to get it on video this morning on my way to work (I pulled over in a layby).  

[Velvet--Glove]

On 7/31/2019 at 7:13 PM, Sidrat said:

A couple of weeks ago I did a two hour journey, nothing much on the radio so I plugged in my USB music stick to listen to that. 

I'm interested to find out if you are just using a normal USB pen drive thingy with some copied music files & folders for this? I tried this on my Corolla to see if I could play music this way but was unsuccessful.

My USB stick is formatted to FAT32 and I know the car can "see" it because I have loaded a few routes/POIs this way but music? No. I assumed it was maybe looking for an iPod or similar so I didn't persist for very long. Maybe I just need to try again??

Thanks for any confirmation or insight on this!

[Sidrat]

3 minutes ago, Velvet--Glove said:

I'm interested to find out if you are just using a normal USB pen drive thingy with some copied music files & folders for this? I tried this on my Corolla to see if I could play music this way but was unsuccessful.

My USB stick is formatted to FAT32 and I know the car can "see" it because I have loaded a few routes/POIs this way but music? No. I assumed it was maybe looking for an iPod or similar so I didn't persist for very long. Maybe I just need to try again??

Thanks for any confirmation or insight on this!

Standard 32Gb USB 2 FAT 32, files are .mp3 format arranged in folders, one for each album.  Standard tags for files with track number, song title etc.  Don't put all the files in one folder as the system can only handle a maximum of 255 files per folder, maximum number of folders is 3000, maximum total files is 9999.

[Velvet--Glove]

2 hours ago, Sidrat said:

Standard 32Gb USB 2 FAT 32, files are .mp3 format arranged in folders, one for each album.  Standard tags for files with track number, song title etc.  Don't put all the files in one folder as the system can only handle a maximum of 255 files per folder, maximum number of folders is 3000, maximum total files is 9999.

Thanks very much for that confirmation, Pete. I think I had that sort of arrangement (mp3s, a few files in each of two test album folders) but perhaps the labels weren't right or something. I will try again!

Cheers and my apologies to the OP for veering off topic a little with this.

[Mooly]

Curiously enough I had a similar issue only the other day... I do a fair bit with USB drives and PC's and this drive wouldn't play ball in the car, it just appeared not to be recognised.

If you are feeling brave you could try this method of formatting the drive (which WILL wipe it completely so beware)

Pop your drive into your PC and begin by typing cmd.exe into the search box. Right click the command prompt and select 'run as admin'. That will open a black window where you can type the commands needed.

Below shows all you need do. Press enter after each line to action the command. Where is says 'select disk 1' be sure to look at what the screen lists for your disks. If your USB drive has another number then use that. For assign letter, use whatever you wish that isn't already in use. It will tell you if you make a mistake.

diskpart
list disk
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format FS=FAT
assign letter=G
exit

This image shows I have an 8Gb drive inserted (disk 1). I didn't proceed further because I didn't want to erase the drive. The full format of the drive will take a while, perhaps 20 minutes or so but you will get a percentage count on screen as it runs.

 

  

[Velvet--Glove]

Thank you for that, Mooly, and I appreciate you taking the time to answer in such detail with what sounds like a very good idea. I'm not afraid to wrestle with cmd.exe but fortunately your partitioning exercise is not necessary as I've just tried my USB stick again with some test album folders and it worked perfectly! So it looks like I'm good to go. I expect it was just me getting something wrong somewhere, in the flurry of getting to grips with a new car and lots of unfamiliar tech. 

The USB option will probably suit me better than using bluetooth to access music on my mobile (which I suspect goes wrong whenever the mobile gets an update!).

Thanks again.

[Mooly]

Pleased to hear you got it working.